The rare move to kick out a country’s entire diplomatic corps marks a significant souring of ties between Iran and the West, amid deepening suspicions over Tehran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Protesters set fire to the British and Israeli national flags break in to the British Embassy during an anti-British demonstration on Tuesday.

Published on Wed Nov 30 2011

LONDON—Iran said Britain's decision to close the Iranian embassy in London on Wednesday was “hasty” and that it would lead to further retaliation, state TV reported, quoting a government spokesman.

“The foreign ministry spokesman ... described the move as ... hasty and added that naturally the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran would take further appropriate action regarding the issue,” the news reporter said.

Britain shut down the Iranian embassy in London and expelled its entire staff on Wednesday, saying the storming of the British diplomatic mission in Tehran on Tuesday could not have taken place without some degree of consent from Iranian authorities.

The move was one of the most significant diplomatic retaliations against Iran since the 1979 U.S. embassy crisis.

“The Iranian charge (d’affaires) in London is being informed now that we require the immediate closure of the Iranian embassy in London and that all Iranian diplomatic staff must leave the United Kingdom within the next 48 hours,” British Foreign Secretary William Hague told parliament.

“We have now closed the British embassy in Tehran. We have decided to evacuate all our staff and as of the last few minutes, the last of our U.K.-based staff have now left Iran,” he said.

France's Foreign Ministry says the country is recalling its ambassador to Iran for consultations after an attack on the British Embassy in Tehran.

The ministry says in a statement that France was moved to act “in the face of this flagrant and unacceptable violation of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations and the gravity of the violence.”

The French government's spokeswoman said earlier that President Nicolas Sarkozy had told ministers that the international community “must heavily sanction Iran” for the attack — such as through a possible embargo on oil exports or the freeze of Iranian central bank holdings.

The White House strongly condemned the attacks and European Union foreign ministers prepared to meet Thursday to consider possible new sanctions.

The decision for Britain to kick out a country’s entire diplomatic corps marks a significant souring of ties between Iran and the West, amid deepening suspicions over Tehran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. Tensions were heightened in October when U.S. officials accused agents linked to Iran’s Quds Force — an elite wing of the powerful Revolutionary Guard — of a role in an alleged plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to the U.S.

Iran currently has 18 diplomats in Britain, according to a list kept by Britain’s foreign ministry.

Britain previously ordered Iran to remove its diplomats in 1989, when the two nations broke off ties over a fatwa, or religious edict, ordering Muslims to kill British author Salman Rushdie because his novel “The Satanic Verses” allegedly insulted Islam.

France’s budget minister, Valerie Pecresse, said the EU should consider a total embargo on oil exports, or a freeze on Iranian central bank holdings. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle’s office said he had recalled Germany’s ambassador from Iran for consultations.

About 24 British embassy staff and dependents were based in Tehran. They are all adults because Britain will not post diplomats with small children to Iran for security reasons.

Hague said it was “fanciful” to think the Iranian authorities could not have protected the British embassy, or that the assault could have taken place without “some degree of regime consent.”

Britain and other Western nations accuse Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons but Tehran insists its program is purely for peaceful purposes.

Iran’s government has expressed regret about the “unacceptable behaviour” of protesters, whose attacks began after anti-British demonstrations apparently authorized by authorities.

But Iran’s Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said that the “wrath of (students) resulted from several decades of domination-seeking behaviour of Britain.”

Larijani — addressing an open session of parliament Wednesday — also called the UN Security Council’s condemnation of the embassy attack a “hasty move.”

Larijani’s comments reflect the deepening diplomatic crisis between Iran and Britain, whose relations have in the past gone through periods of upheavals. On Sunday, Iran’s parliament approved a bill to downgrade relations with Britain, one of America’s closest allies with diplomatic envoys in the Islamic Republic.

Larijani insisted that the decision to scale back relations needs to be carried out immediately. But President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has remained silent and his representatives have publicly opposed parliament’s decision.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said it must carry out the decision after the parliament vote was approved Monday by Iran’s constitutional watchdog, the Guardian Council.

In Norway, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hilde Steinfeld said the decision to close the embassy was taken late Tuesday, but that Norwegian diplomatic staff have not been evacuated from the Iran.

Steinfeld did not give further details, but said “the decision follows security concern ... in context with the attack on the British Embassy.”

Norway has four to five diplomatic staff deployed in the Iranian capital, she said.

Neighbouring Sweden, which has not closed its embassy or evacuated staff from Tehran, also showed its disapproval of the attack by summoning the Iranian ambassador to the Foreign Ministry in Stockholm on Wednesday morning.

“Iran has a duty to protect diplomatic premises and authorities there should have intervened immediately,” Swedish Foreign Ministry spokesman Teo Zetterman said.

The assaults began after protest rallies organized by pro-government groups in universities and Islamic seminaries. It was not clear, however, if the attackers were mostly students or led by hard-line forces such as the basij paramilitary corps, which is run by Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard.

The attackers ripped down the Union Jack, torched an embassy vehicle and tossed looted documents before riot police eventually cleared the areas. “Death to England!” some cried outside the compound in the first significant assault of a foreign diplomatic area in Iran in years.

Chants called for the closure of the embassy and called it a “spy den” — the same phrase used after militants stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and held 52 hostages for 444 days. In the early moments of that siege, protesters tossed out papers from the compound and pulled down the U.S. flag. Washington and Tehran have had no diplomatic relations since then.

Britain broke off relations with Iran after the Islamic Revolution and gradually restored during the 1990s.

China, which is one of Iran’s key allies, refused to criticize Iran by name for the attack on the British compounds, but said “the security and dignity” of diplomatic missions should be protected.